Corporate Singapore witnessed a rare event last month when a familiar name in the listed company circuit was turfed out as a non-executive director of steel distributor AnnAik.

An overwhelming 72.4 per cent of the votes cast at a shareholder meeting were against reappointing Mr Daniel Lin, who is also executive director of Viking Offshore and Marine, to the board.

But despite the clear rejection, there appears to be no bad blood between Mr Lin and the firm.

All outstanding issues have been resolved, said Mr Lin yesterday, after speaking with AnnAik chairman and chief executive James Ow.

"He was very kind to explain to me why I was not re-elected and I have found his explanations to be reasonable and fair," he added.

"As a result, I am satisfied with the outcome and accept the shareholders' decision to not re-elect me."

When contacted just after the annual general meeting (AGM) on April 25, Mr Lin told The Straits Times that he reserved comment as he was still working closely with the company. Mr Ow said this was not the case.

Mr Ow told The Straits Times on Tuesday that plans had been under way to reduce AnnAik's board size following its sponsor's advice after the company was transferred to the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) in May last year.

These plans had been made clear to Mr Lin ahead of the AGM, where all resolutions other than the one for his re-election were passed with a 100 per cent mandate.

Mr Ow said: "He said he wanted to go for the AGM. What can I do?"

There is a certain irony to Mr Lin's misadventure at AnnAik, which comes shortly after he mounted a challenge of his own at another Singapore-listed company, mobile prepaid card distributor S i2i.

Mr Lin is the executive director of Blue Ocean Capital Partners, a self-titled "benevolent shareholder activist" investor.

He suggested in a February letter to S i2i that he and a partner should be installed on the S i2i board to spearhead an orderly winding-up of the company unless it could come up with a viable plan to exit the SGX watch-list.

AnnAik now has a five-man board from eight previously after the retirement of one independent director and resignation of two executive directors last month, although the two executive directors continue to serve other AnnAik units.

Mr Lin had also suggested that AnnAik give him a seat as an independent director, although he was rejected on the basis that he could not be independent since he represents the interests of his father, said Mr Ow.